For those interested; 

I have the Vista Home BASIC edition 32 bit and the 64 bit.  You must order the x64 for about $10.00 additional, to cover shipping and handling. You can upgrade Home Basic 32 to 64, to Home Premium, and Ultimate, but not Business.  And you cannot use the Virtual PC for Home Basic.  It does not matter since I have additional third party software that can do what the Ultimate edition can do.  

The 32 bit system has the most support for software, drivers, and hardware, but lacks the security features of the x64, so it is said.  Others say that the x64 is faster than the x86.

Since, I am wary of upgrading 32 with 64, and taking the chance of mixed drivers and failed software, I decided to install the Vista 64 into Win XP SP2.  I was told the OS was not compatible for install, and directed to do a reboot and clean install.  Which I did, and the contents of the partition were moved into a Folder named Windows.old.  The whole installation took about 15 minutes.  I used the Microsoft approved drivers and did not install the retail versions.

I have finished installing Vista x64 other software and running Vue retail to see if there are any performance improvements.

The x64 system uses two different folders one for x64 and another for x86 that is run as if Virtual software.  There are also two swap files.

The graphic software I have is supposed to be x64 compatible, however, when installing most of this software, it was installed in the x86 Folder.  So it works on the x64 system but is not fully x64.  My U.S. Robotics Modem software is fully x64 and installed in the correct Folder.

Vue worked as expected, with the exception of importing Poser, and would not recognize my graphics card.  I opened the preferences, and unticked the Test my Video Card, and reduced some of the features to create less strain on the system resources, the same as for the 32 bit, nothing anyone else could not do.

After that Vue worked fine.  I saw little performance improvement over the x86 OS, about 5 to 7 percent on average.  The x64 handles small files about the same as the x86, but larger files faster.  Everything else was pretty much the same. 

Ironically, the only software that seemed to improve was my Carrara 5.1, which rendered a scene in 15 minutes that normally took one and a half hours.  It seemed a more efficient use of the Duel Processor and OpenGl.

Since most of the software is still 32 bit compatible and runs virtual in the x64 environment, until software goes x64, you make the call.

You don't do it for speed, you do it for memory management.  32-bit apps are limited to a 3GB process space even under a 64-bit OS, 64-bit apps under 64-bit OS are effectively unlimited.  How much physical memory do you have?  If you have less than 4GB, there isn't any real benefit.  If you have more than 4GB, the benefit is enormous.

Very good point.  2 gigs are present, spent too much on the new software, will have to wait for the extra ram.  

Is anyone else running Vista x64 with more than 4 gigs?  And if so do you have an idea of how much of an improvement between the two OS's there is?  Otherwise, I might wait on the ram.

I'm not running Vista 64 but XP64 and I have to agree, the huge advantage is to be able to use as much memory as your motherboard can get (not to mention your bank account ;))
I currently have 8 go (which is, I agree overkill, but I got lucky on ebay and  I got the 8  go for just slightly more than I would have paid  for 4 so .... :)  Being able to run  Vue or poser + photoshop  + my  modeling program without having to close one before opening the other is really something I greatly appreciate, especially when fine tunning a texture. Being able to render a scene that will use 4 go of memory in my main 3D application is also a big plus. No more worry about too much maps (it doesn't mean I don't try anymore to optimize my work, but I won't leave out a needed specular map because I hit the 2 go upper limit)
Other than that, I have to agree, no huge speed improvements, sometimes you gain a few % but well, 2 minutes on a 20 minutes render, you don't really notice it (maybe different for those who do animations though). Off course, this also mean a lot less 3D application crash (most of the time, max crashed when rendering for lack of memory, nothing else)
I'm not ready for Vista, and I guess I won't until I have no real choice (nothing to do with the "Vista bashing trend", it's just due to the fact I'm not really interested by what Vista would bring me - as an example, I run my XP 64 with the classic interface, the Win 2K look :)) but going 64 bit is definitely a big plus when you do some serious 3D and you want the limit to be your skill and not your hardware (I guess when it comes to software, whatever 3D application you use, unless you're exceptionally good, it's hard tor reach the limit anyway :) )

J-L

Thanks, that is a help.  Looks like I am going to have to get a second job to pay for all of the new ram I will need.

Thanks again.